The Strategic Implementation Plan of theEuropean Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP-SCC)states that "... measuring a city's progress can raise societal awareness for a low-carbon lifestyle, support industry in identifying new business opportunities, and help city administration in coordinating and monitoring the transformation process". CITYkeys performance measurement system intends to provide a solution for this challenge.

The aim of the 'New Business Opportunities' report (download) is to identify new business opportunities for new and existing enterprises. Especially service and technology providers can make use of gaps in the current setup to offer new solutions and meet the needs of cities. Solutions for open data management can be used to apply the CITYkeys performance measurement framework or as basis for the development of further smart city applications for citizens and businesses.

Cities, platforms for new business opportunities

Some cities, like Zaragoza, have public business incubators in their start-up ecosystem (visit the ETOPIA center for art & technology website). The new business opportunities can also be related to open data applications or smart city certification processes. Business opportunities have been analysed both for existing companies to extend their service portfolio and for new actors that will be needed in the deployment of smart city solutions (e.g. start-ups). The potential benefits of certified smart city projects for investors, users and general public have been evaluated.